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[Zootsuit]

I continued to have problems with playback stuttering and other difficulties with Media Center, ranging from slow opening to hanging on entering basic commands. I am running Windows Defender and Windows 10, with all updates current. Files in question play uninterruptedly in Foobar. So, I took the following steps

Before posting this, I have confirmed all of the exceptions from Awesome Donkey's pinned instruction, and just double-checked them yesterday. I've also disabled all antivirus scanning from Defender and checked to ensure that MC is permitted through the firewall. That seems to address the playback issues, but it leaves me naked on the anti-virus/firewall front.

Also, even with Defender off, I still can't access Help>System Info. When I enter the command,  the program hangs indefinitely.

Are there further commands or exceptions that I'm missing? Does the problem lie in WD, Windows 10 or possibly elsewhere?

(TIA for suggestions. The forum has been an effective way to access the networked knowledge of an experienced user base.)

[JimH]

Are you running any other security software?

You could try turning your firewall back on, but normally the firewall on the router is your best defense, unless you don't trust users on your own LAN.

Try the Weird Problems thread in my signature.

This is bad and likely caused by security software somewhere:

I still can't access Help>System Info. When I enter the command,  the program hangs indefinitely.

but it gives you a good simple test.  When that works, everything else will probably work.

[Zootsuit]

Thanks Jim.

No other security software I'm aware of.  I deleted Malwarebytes, which has been a major headache. I ran Revo Uninstaller to see if anything was lurking. There's nothing that looks to me like a security program.  Attached is a screen shot of what Revo turned up.

I did scan Weird Problems, which is where I picked up the idea of turning WD off (which should have been obvious). Most of the issues were attributable to AV or firewall concerns.

 I can turn off the WD firewall and rely instead on the router (Asus). That leaves the System Info. If I boot into safe mode, I can see if it works there, with everything else disabled.

[JimH]

That's a lot of software.  Is this an old machine that's had Windows updated a few times?

If it were my machine, I'd uninstall anything not being used.

I assume you mean that you uninstalled Malwarebytes, not that you deleted its files.

Is foobar accessing the same files in the same location?  Is it a local drive?

[Zootsuit]

Thanks for the suggestions.

My device has gone through a number of updates.

I've uninstalled programs no longer in use. I also returned to the Scan Exceptions and found that I had inadvertently failed to add a NAS device. (I had previously tried to add it, must have failed to save the addition. That's on me.)  Adding that speeded me up considerably and I'm no longer encountering the skipping on playback.

FYI, the (very large) library is mostly stored remotely - external drives and NAS facilities. I take that into account in my comments about slow responses.

I still can't access Help>System Info. MC hangs indefinitely.

For the moment, I've continued using the Defender firewall and not the Asus router. I'll try that next.

[JimH]

Progress.  Good.  Is MC's database on a local drive?  It should be.

A big internal drive might help.   You can use MC's tools to move your media files.  https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Moving_Files

Having fun?

[Zootsuit]

 

Progress.  Good.  Is MC's database on a local drive?  It should be.

A big internal drive might help.   You can use MC's tools to move your media files.  https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Moving_Files

Having fun?

........Most fun you can have standing up.   

I can live with the lag time to load remote libraries. We're talking about multiple TBs of data. (Mostly jazz, some show and cabaret, if its of interest.) Can't imagine a large enough internal to accommodate all of this. But I will make sure MC loads from a database on the C Drive. I've been backing up remotely which probably contributes to this behavior.

[JimH]

8TB drives are $200.
https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-BarraCuda-Internal-Drive-3-5-Inch/dp/B07H289S7C/

Is MC's database (not your media files) on a local drive?  It should be.